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MONDAY, March 21, 2016 – More seniors than ever are taking supplements alongside their medications, a practice that puts them at risk for dangerous drug interactions, researchers report. More than 15 percent of older Americans took potentially life-threatening combinations of prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs and dietary supplements in 2011, the study showed. That was almost a twofold increase from 2005, when 8.4 percent of seniors did so. "Alongside the growing use of multiple medications, there is also a hidden, and increasing, risk of potentially deadly drug interactions in older adults," said lead researcher Dr. Dima Qato. She is an assistant professor of pharmacy systems at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Many of these interactions involved heart drugs and supplements, such as omega-3 fish oil supplements, which are more commonly used now than they were five ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, March 9, 2016 – You could be putting your health at risk if you buy imported dietary supplements and nonprescription drug products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns. Health fraud scammers often sell such products at ethnic or international stores, flea markets, swap meets or online, Cariny Nunez, a public health adviser in the FDA's Office of Minority Health, said in an agency news release. This may be because many people who shop at these places have poor English-language skills and limited access to health care services and information, she suggested. "These scammers know that ethnic groups who may not speak or read English well, or who hold certain cultural beliefs, can be easy targets," she added. For example, Native American, Hispanic, Asian and black people may have a long tradition of using herbal – or so-called "natural" – products, and many of these ... Read more

-- If you're feeding your child a vegetarian diet, make sure he or she is getting enough essential nutrients. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says the child's diet should include: Vitamin B12, found in eggs and milk. If the child is on a strictly vegan diet, fortified soy products and fortified cereals are good sources. Vitamin D and calcium, found in fortified milk and dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt. Iron, found in daily supplements and fortified cereals. Protein, found in beans, fortified cereals and soy milk. Yogurt and eggs also are good choices. Fiber, found in fortified and whole-grain breads, pastas and cereals, as well as avocados, nuts and seeds. Read more

WEDNESDAY, May 13, 2015 – A cheap and easily available vitamin supplement appears to reduce a person's risk of skin cancer, new research contends. A form of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide is linked to a reduction of non-melanoma skin cancers by 23 percent when taken twice daily, according to Australian researchers. "It's safe, it's almost obscenely inexpensive, and it's already widely commercially available," said senior author Dr. Diona Damian, a professor of dermatology at the University of Sydney. Nicotinamide costs less than $10 for a month's supply and is available at pharmacies and health food stores, she said. However, more study is needed before researchers can say whether everyone would benefit from the supplement. "It's not something we'd recommend at this stage for the general population," Damian said. The study is slated for presentation May 30 at the upcoming annual ... Read more

FRIDAY, May 8, 2015 – For obese Americans who are low on vitamin D, taking a supplement of the nutrient might help them lose weight, a new study suggests. According to an Italian team, led by Luisella Vigna of the University of Milan, prior research has shown that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher risk of obesity and obesity-related complications. However, studies on the use of vitamin D supplements to curb obesity have so far been inconclusive, the team said. The new study included 400 overweight and obese people with vitamin D deficiency who were put on a low-calorie diet and then divided into three groups. One group took no vitamin D supplements, while the two other groups took either 25,000 international units (IU) or 100,000 IU of vitamin D per month. After six months, participants in both vitamin D supplementation groups had lost more weight and had greater ... Read more

THURSDAY, April 30, 2015 – People who live in regions with low sunlight may have a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, possibly because they don't get enough vitamin D from the sun, new research suggests. "If you're living at a high latitude or in a place with a lot of heavy cloud cover, you can't make vitamin D most of the year, which results in a higher-than-normal risk of getting pancreatic cancer," said study co-author Dr. Cedric Garland. He is an adjunct professor with the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine's Department of Family Medicine and Public Health. "People who live in sunny countries near the equator have only one-sixth of the age-adjusted incidence rate of pancreatic cancer as those who live far from it," Garland said in a university news release. "The importance of sunlight deficiency strongly suggests – but does not prove – that vitamin D deficiency ... Read more

FRIDAY, March 20, 2015 – High levels of blood fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides can hold vitamin E in the blood and prevent it from reaching the tissues that require it, a small study says. The findings suggest that checking only blood levels of vitamin E may not show whether a person has adequate levels of vitamin E, the researchers said. They also suggested that past methods used to measure vitamin E levels in tissues are flawed. The study included 41 young and older adult women and men who ate collard greens treated with a chemical that enabled the researchers to track vitamin E as it moved through the participants' bodies. "In simple terms, we believe that less than one-third the amount of vitamin E is actually making it to the tissues where it's most needed," study author Maret Traber, a professor for micronutrient research at Oregon State University, said in a university ... Read more

THURSDAY, Sept. 18, 2014 – Daily supplements of selenium or vitamin E don't seem to protect against the development of age-related cataracts among men, a new study indicates. Previous animal research has suggested that one or both could help prevent cataracts. To investigate this further, William Christen, from Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his colleagues examined data from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of selenium and vitamin E. The trial was initially designed to study prevention of prostate cancer. Of the more than 35,000 men involved in the initial study, more than 11,000 were asked to report if they had been diagnosed with cataracts or undergone cataract removal surgery since the study began. All of the black men in the study were aged 50 years or older. All of the other men were aged 55 years or older. The average treatment and ... Read more

MONDAY, Feb. 24, 2014 – Healthy Americans shouldn't take vitamin E or beta carotene supplements to help prevent heart disease or cancer, an influential government panel of experts concludes. The same group said the value of a daily multivitamin for dodging these diseases remains unclear. In its statement released Monday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force added that taking vitamin E or beta carotene might even raise health risks for some people. Ample evidence now shows vitamin E doesn't do anything to prevent heart disease or cancer, while beta carotene also doesn't work and may increase the risk of lung cancer in people who are already at higher risk for the disease, the task force noted. "Unfortunately, at this point in time, the science is not sufficient for us to estimate either how much benefit or harm there is from taking multivitamin supplements for cancer or heart ... Read more

TUESDAY, Dec. 31, 2013 – There might be some good news in the fight against Alzheimer's disease: A new study suggests that a large daily dose of vitamin E might help slow progression of the memory-robbing illness. Alzheimer's patients given a "pharmacological" dose of vitamin E experienced slower declines in thinking and memory and required less caregiver time than those taking a placebo, said Dr. Maurice Dysken, lead author of a new study published Dec. 31 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "We found vitamin E significantly slowed the rate of progression versus placebo," said Dysken, who is with the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System. Experts stressed, however, that vitamin E does not seem to fight the underlying cause of Alzheimer's and is in no way a cure. The study involved more than 600 patients at 14 VA ... Read more

MONDAY, July 23 – Eating a diet high in antioxidants such as selenium and vitamins C and E may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer by up to two-thirds, a new study suggests. The study is observational in nature and can only suggest an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. The British researchers say, however, that if further research confirms a direct link, this type of diet could prevent 8 percent of pancreatic cancer cases. One expert said there has been much research into the link between diet and cancer. "Over the years there have been many attempts to find dietary causes for cancer," said Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra, chief of oncology and hematology at North Shore-LIJ's Monter Cancer Center in Lake Success, N.Y. "It is estimated that 35 percent of cancers are related to carcinogens in the diet. Antioxidants have been the subject of numerous trials because in theory they ... Read more

TUESDAY, March 20 – Vitamin E supplements don't appear to affect a healthy woman's overall risk of heart failure one way or the other, researchers report. "It neither increases nor decreases the risk," said study author Dr. Claudia Chae, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. This latest finding, published in the March 20 issue of Circulation: Heart Failure, differs from previous reports of an increased risk of heart failure with the use of the supplement. However, those studies looked at the effect of the supplements in women who had heart disease or diabetes or who had suffered a heart attack. The new study is believed to be the first to look at whether vitamin E supplements might help healthy women avoid heart failure. The new study, Chae said, "adds to a pretty substantial body of data" that does not support the use of supplements for preventing heart disease. Vitamin E ... Read more

SUNDAY, March 4 – Vitamin E may stimulate cells that result in bone loss, a new study suggests. Researchers led by Shu Takeda of Keio University in Tokyo said their findings could have implications for people who take vitamin E supplements. The researchers explain that maintaining a balance between bone-forming cells (osteoblasts) and bone-degrading cells (osteoclasts) keeps bones strong. Although prior studies had suggested that vitamin E could be beneficial for bone health, the Japanese researchers found the opposite may be true, since the nutrient seems to trigger the production of bone-eroding osteoclasts. A U.S. expert agreed with the hypothesis. "Bone health is a dynamic tissue and issue," said Dr. Robert Graham, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It is in a constant struggle between osteoblasts ... and osteoclasts." Understanding this cellular battle "is ... Read more

Oct. 11--For health-conscious men of a certain age, what could be more prudent than taking vitamins and getting screened for prostate cancer? Not doing those things. That's the disillusioning take-home message from back-to-back reports on prostate cancer, the malignancy diagnosed in one out of every six American men. A major national study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that selenium and vitamin E supplements do not ward off the disease-and vitamin E alone can somehow promote it. Less than a week ago, an influential federal panel recommended against screening with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. The "vast majority" of men treated for PSA-detected tumors do not prolong their lives, yet that treatment subjects them to "significant harms," including urinary, sexual, and bowel problems, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said in a ... Read more

TUESDAY, Oct. 11 – Men taking supplemental vitamin E may be increasing their risk for prostate cancer by up to 17 percent, a new study suggests. But the reason for the association is unclear, the researchers say. "Practically, this means for every 1,000 men who take vitamin E, 76 men get cancer, compared with 65 if they were taking placebo," said lead researcher Dr. Eric A. Klein, chairman of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. The new finding comes on the heels of a study released Monday that found that dietary supplements – including multivitamins, which often contain vitamin E – are associated with worse health in older women. Why vitamin E might increase the risk for prostate cancer isn't known, Klein said. "There's a biologic implication here we don't understand. But what it suggests is that vitamins can potentially be harmful," he said. The ... Read more